It is now three months since Amazon launched their MMO New World, and it’s been a bit of a bumpy ride. Every game has launch pains, but New World’s issues caused a decent chunk of the player base to abandon the game entirely. Server mergers were one of the most talked-about events, as it would enhance the experience for everyone. Well, that’s finally happening this week.
The server mergers began on December 9th, starting with the central EU server Mardi that will merge into the EU server Brittia. This was initially planned for December 8th, but widespread Amazon Web Services outages pushed the merger by a day. Two additional mergers will occur on December 10th ,
- Central EU: Ishtakar, Metsola, Glitnir, Kalevala, Zu-Vendis, and Phaeacia servers will merge into Caer Sidi.
- South America: Tuma, Svarga, Rukh, and Patala will merge into Irkalla.
These merges are likely just the start of a long process. When New World first launched, it saw a concurrent player peak of over 340415,000, which led to long login queue times. To combat this, Amazon quickly created a bunch of new servers and promised players free server transfers later.
However, the number of players has halved since then, and many of those new servers are practically emptying, playing host to just a few hundred inhabitants at any given time. New World is still a popular game, but there are just far too many servers compared to the number of players.
Amazon released a FAQ detailing how and why a server might be merged with another. They stated that if the data shows the experience in a world has become “suboptimal,” the studio will start looking for servers it can be merged into.
Population size, player engagement, and other parameters decide whether a server is classified as “unhealthy.” When deciding on which server to merge into, the studio will look at aspects such as faction balance, language, and gameplay styles between a choice of servers before choosing a specific one.
Progress will not be lost during these mergers; gold, items, companies, homes, and more will be transferred. Owned territories will not be included in this transfer and are left in the control of those playing on the host server.
This will slightly disrupt the PvP aspect of the game, as the objective is to own as many territories as possible. The upside is players will not be playing in an empty server with little to no competition.
This seems like a good move on Amazon’s part for the current players, and the new players it hopes will join the game. Nothing turns people away from an MMO faster than an empty world with no one to play against. How seamless this server transfer will be; we’ll only get to know after it has occurred and no complaints are popping up on the subreddit.
About New World
New World is an upcoming massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) by Amazon Games set to be released on August 31, 2021. The game was previously scheduled to release in May 2020 but was delayed to its current date.
Set in the mid-1600s, players colonize a fictional land known as Aeternum Island, modeled after North and South Americas in the Atlantic Ocean. The game will be using a buy-to-play business model, meaning there will be no monthly subscription fee.
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